That Christmas, SARDINES bumped
Oranges from the toe of my stocking,
and foil coins hollowed in the heat of my hand.
Atonal carols rhymed ‘prove’ with ‘love’.
And even now, in a coat of blue ice, all is still
until the weight grows unbearable and a tree
screams. We circle twenty-six thousand
light years from the center of things,

yet spring thaws are inevitable.
In voices no longer deadened by snow,
bluesy, brassy saxophones
play whale songs through telephone wires,
low buzzings reaching thousands of miles.
A gift of a tiny glass rose, years ago.

it spools pools you're the one i needed
feel like second skin sometimes. Doing this
he spins for me on a rooming-house
how I forgive my own separateness
she is, honest to god! Didn’t we know
Bloody Marys, sweet smoke, poems you compose
think not snail alpha glyphs
wide open. tease me, take me, bring us home.